Auckland Central Community of Schools 2021 Report to the Principals.
Term 4 Week 7
Date: Dec 2nd 2021
Time: 10am
Venue: Via ZOOM
Introduction
This year the Auckland Central Community of Schools Across Schools Leaders reported their mahi to the principals in the ACCoS Kāhui AkoFlexible Grouping
Champion: Delanee Dale
Across School Leader: Ajita Goh and Abby Cavanagh
Schools Involved: Maungawhau School, Auckland Normal Intermediate School, Parnell District School, Remuera Primary School, Cornwall Park District School, Kohia Terrace School
Flexible Grouping Brief: The focus will be on enhancing the pedagogical approach of flexible grouping so teachers can apply it in any learning area. Learning becomes a collective endeavour where children are not limited by perceptions of ability that can often be seen in ability grouping. 2021 will see schools working digitally so students and teachers develop a different perception of grouping. |
What has been happening?
- Across-school student maths exchange took place during Maths Week to deepen across-school connections
- One-on-one coaching has continued, and 10-point scale coaching and solutions-focused team format coaching have been introduced to develop ISLs’ leadership capacity
- ISLs have formed connections amongst themselves and have incorporated ideas from other schools into their own schools
The Way Forward
- Continue developing effective digital and face-to-face across-school connections
- Continue facilitating meaningful and purposeful initiative meetings where there is a balance between admin and learning from one another in a semi-structured format
ESOL
Champion: Steve King (Remuera Primary)
Across School Leader: Alix Osbaldiston (Remuera Primary)
Schools Involved: Remuera Primary - Karen Kam (ISL)
- Kate Seales (DP
Kohia Terrace - Nicola Zimmerman (ISL)
- Catherine Palmer (DP)
Victoria Avenue - Julie Hadlow (ISL)
- Jane Bush (Principal)
ESOL Brief: The focus will be to build upon the work started in 2020 on the Multilingual Toolkit. This is a collaborative resource for teachers to develop their confidence and capability in providing effective learning programmes that support students in both transition and language acquisition across the curriculum. |
What has been happening?
- RPS and KTS applied and received ‘Professional development release time for teachers working with English language learners (Pathways) through the ministry. Which includes 2 full days release for 5 teachers. This has been shared with VAS joining the initiative.
- A ‘working bee’ style day was spent at KTS to do the mahi in changing the ELLP Listening and Speaking statements into child speak with relevant examples.
- RPS within their PLG group has rolled out a trial of Reading with one student per class and KTS has rolled out Speaking Stage 1 Interpersonal with some staff members. This will be an ongoing process.
The Way Forward:
- Continue to develop and construct the ELLP student cards (Writing, Listening, Speaking) ready for classroom trials.Each school to take the changes and create own documents that work for their schools.
- Updating the Toolkit with more online resources for teachers and students to use within the classroom.
- Investigating how to align the ELLP audit with the work we are doing and our learning journeys (so it is one document and not three - Waiting on Ministry updates here).
- Using and adapting an existing survey to procure parent voice E.g. How well do they feel that their children’s learning is supported?
Hauora
Champion: Phil Toomer
Across School Leader: Andy Lawrence and Teal Gray
Schools Involved: Auckland Normal Intermediate, Epsom Normal Primary School, Kohia Terrace School, Maungawhau School, Meadowbank Primary School, Victoria Avenue School
Hauora Brief Schools that join this initiative will be supported by two ASLs. The focus will be on helping teachers to explore and implement effective wellbeing practices for their students. The wellbeing initiative will also assist staff and students to understand, discuss and support their own wellbeing. |
What has been happening?
- Schools within the initiative uniting for a mental health / wellbeing event to create sense of community
- Engaged both expert and student voice in planning for a wellbeing event; connecting student leaders from several schools
- Collected and analysed data from across the community, identifying trends, strengths and clarity around where to invest energy and resources
- Built a strong sense of collaboration among our Kahui Ako which has allowed us to use common resources
The Way Forward
- Share and discuss the data gathered across schools to support both principals and ISL’s to plan next steps that addresses items that have arisen
- Further establish connections across the community through events such as Hauora Hikoi, RAK Day and sharing back
- Developing a way to share the resources schools are using across a universal platform
- Adding Wellbeing practices to ASL meetings
- ISLs exploring Wellbeing pathways, are we preparing our students for their future learning and challenges
Mahi Tahi me te Ākonga
Champion: Tric Milner and Lorraine Pound
Across School Leader: Sue Spencer and Lisa Murphy
Schools Involved: EGGS
Mahi Tahi me te Akonga Brief: Schools that join this initiative are supported by two ASLs. 2021 Overarching Goals
How:
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What has been happening?
This year we have had 12 cross curricular PLGS running at Epsom Girls Grammar School.
See the overview doc: 2021 MahiTahi Overview
- Hikoi with Us PLG
- Learner Agency
- Philosophy: ‘Sharing is caring’
- ‘Growing Thought’ - critical and creative thinking
- Emotional Intelligence
- Blended Learning
- Supporting Wellbeing
- UDL
- The Politics of Knowledge
- Growth Mindset
- Flexible Learning
- Mapping Learning with AKO Maps
PLGs had 13 sessions throughout the year. 6/13 sessions were held in lockdowns via online meetings.
ASLs have been developing leadership skills with the ISL group as follows (this was somewhat interrupted by lockdown).
Term One: Thinkfest event for years 6 to 8; Madeline Gunn presentation on leadership
Term Two: Open to Learning Conversations: The ladder of inference explained; and roleplay (ASLs)
Term Three: Kahui Ako research: Kahui Ako models (Tric Milner); EGGS PLG structure review; coaching
Term Four: PLG evaluations and feedback
Term Four Evaluations: Nov 24th - PLG and Initiative Evaluation Day:
ISLs summarised their findings- with many interesting links to strategies, resources and frameworks in their reports.
2021 PLG Reports
ASLs Sue, Lisa and DP Tric Milner read all of the ISL/PLG reports and summarised key themes and findings.
On the afternoon of Weds Nov 24th Evaluation Meeting Plan we held a meeting to reflect and evaluate progress and findings in 2021 and to look ahead to 2022. This was a really enjoyable afternoon of sharing and thinking. It was more condensed than usual due to the Covid year. Usually ISLs speak individually, however, this year ASLs reported back the findings from reading reports in summary form. We farewelled Sue Spencer, Glaire Gavin, Amanda Gill and Jahred Dell from their ACCoS roles.
The Way Forward
- Continuing to develop teacher skill in Te Reo - (resourcing is an issue)
- Build understanding of Te Ao Maori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Matauranga Maori (This comes partly from the NCEA Review, partly from Teachers Council requirements )
- Supporting Pasifika learners - motivation, engagement, cultural responsiveness
- Wellbeing, self awareness and agency: A shift - more emphasis on individuals knowing themselves - teachers knowing themselves, students knowing themselves, as people and as learners. Developing self-awareness, challenging beliefs, investigating biases. If teachers understand themselves better, they can be more open and have less defensive relationships (to have a growth mindset). This allows teachers and students to build more honest AKO – reciprocal learning relationships. AKO is the bridge to developing real agency in and with our learners – growing their confidence and resilience to go out into the world and make better decisions.
- Engagement and critical thinking - developing hands on AND digital strategies to support interaction and critical thinking in the classroom, to support learning.
- Make the various frameworks (e.g. UDL, Te Kotahitanga) that are being used more explicit to staff.
Initiative: Progressional Thinking
Champion: Richard George
Across School Leader: Abby Cavanagh & Suzanne Parkinson
Schools Involved:
Victoria Ave: Tim Botica
Epsom Normal Primary: Casey Gilligan
Auckland Normal Intermediate: Ashley Triana
Parnell District School: Susan Bridgeman, Vanessa Sharplin, Peter Kaho.
Remuera Primary School: Corinna Anthony
Progressional Thinking Brief: This initiative is all about the pedagogy of progressional thinking in the classroom. The focus will be on the use of progressional thinking to support formative assessment, targeted planning and teaching while developing connections between schools that are using similar tools. |
What has been happening?
In 2021 we held 3 of the 8 planned meetings due to Covid. This was supported by coaching and planning meetings with ISL’s to support their work in their school context.
Know thy Impact: Investigating Hattie’s effect size.
What high impact effects from Visible Learning are linked to your progressional thinking?
Are there actions/aspects that you could harness or investigate as to their potential to share with your schools/teams.
Teaching is a dialogue, not a monologue:
Work with other teachers to develop common understandings of progress.
Sharing of tools that supported teacher interaction and learning in PLG and information sessions.
Sharing of planning and assessment tools that are being used in our schools and their effectiveness in supporting student agency and progressional thinking learning pathways.
Reflection on Actions for the year.
Feedback focused on the Principal’s goals for the initiative and ISL intent and actions, along with a collection of observations on the use of Progressional Thinking tools when teaching and learning online.
The Way Forward
To develop genuine across-school connections between ISLs initially and schools to
- observe and share effective practice which model the factors that amplify professional thinking in the classroom.
- Share effective leadership practice and actions that support leading and learning in PLG’s and PD in schools.
Investigating rich tasks to support progressional thinking across the curriculum- inquiry learning and UDL. Investigating assessment tasks and resources to support student and teacher evaluation of Progressional Thinking objectives and sets.
Local Curriculum
Champion: Jill Farquharson, Kyle Brewerton
Across School Leader: Andy Lawrence, Sonya Van Schaijik
Schools Involved: Auckland Normal Intermediate, Cornwall Park, Epsom Normal Primary, Kohia Terrace, Maungawhau, Meadowbank Primary, Newmarket Primary, Parnell District, Remuera Intermediate, Remuera Primary, Victoria Avenue
Local Curriculum Brief: Schools that join this initiative will be supported by two ASLs. A representative from each school (someone with a strong curriculum base) will join the Champion and ASLs to develop a local curriculum for our Kahui Ako and their own school. The focus of this work will place learners at the centre and use high impact practices to strengthen collaborative inquiry, build coherent pathways and strengthen learning-focused relationships. |
What has been happening?
This year we had 4 out of the 7 planned across school’s meetings. The last 3 were postponed due to COVID 19.
In term 1 each school identified their understanding of local curriculum to help clarify a common definition of Local Curriculum.
In Term 2, we identified where each school was at, on their Local Curriculum journey by gathering data sets.
We also gathered qualitative data of each school, in relation to the three key learning strategies, using a traffic light system (strength, in development, needs work).
In term 3 we met together to build our understanding of what a Rich Learning task was.
The ASLs and Champions met virtually with Rosemary Hipkins to discuss professional learning with Rich Tasks.
The Way Forward
Continue to build understanding of the key concepts of Local Curriculum using Rosemary Hipkins expertise.
Finalise our Local Curriculum image for ACCoS.
Continue supporting schools within our Local Curriculum Initiative in embedding Local Curriculum in school’s strategic plans.
Unpack understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand Histories. Work collaboratively with Mana Whenua to gain an understanding of local landmarks.
Early Childhood
Champion: Wendy Kofoed
In School Leader: Sarah Morrisson
Schools Involved: Cornwall Park, Epsom Normal Primary, Kohia Terrace, Maungawhau, Meadowbank Primary, Newmarket Primary, Parnell District, Remuera Primary, Victoria Avenue
ECE Brief: The work will include building on the collaborative sharing we did in 2020, and extend practices that support transition to school within the ACCoS primary and Early Childhood Centres. |
What has been happening
-This year we had two ECE/NE teacher group meetings, one focusing on wellbeing and one on transition to school. These meetings were very well attended and we received lots of positive feedback.
-We had our term 3 (transition room at CPDS) and 4 (play based learning at Remuera) meetings planned but unfortunately had to cancel these due to covid. Hopefully we can continue with these meetings in 2022.
-Over the last 3 months we have continued to stay in touch through the ACCoS ECE-NE/Yr1 Teachers facebook group.
The Way Forward
-To continue our meetings each term, focusing on building relationships between ECE and Primary School teachers and developing transition to school processes.
Thank you
From the ASLs, thanks go firstly to the wonderful champions for this year; thank you for your listening ears and your wise counsel. To the principals, thank you for allowing and encouraging your teachers to be part of this community. To the students in absentia, thank you for allowing your teachers to learn alongside you. To Alison, thank you for continuing to coach the ASLs; this has been highly valuable professional development which can be used with the ISLs. To Madeleine, thank you for coming to all the ASL meetings and offering up your wisdom. To Jill, thank you for supporting the ASLs as they grow into their roles and for agreeing to continue in your role for another two years.
Farewells
We farewell Abby Cavanagh who has been an Across school Leader for the last 2 years. She has been involved in the Flexible Grouping initiative and the Progressional Thinking Initiative.
We also farewell Ajita Goh who has been an Across school Leader for the last 2 years. She has been involved in the Flexible Grouping initiative.
Finally we farewell Sue Spencer who has been an Across school Leader for the last 5 and a half years,
She has been involved in the Working with the Mahi Tahi me te Ākonga initiative at Epsom Girls which has a focus on learner agency.
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